Visions Through a Bloodstained LookingGlass
by Sly-Black-Rabbit
Summary: After her return from her first trip to Wonderland, Alice slowly loses touch with reality, and her two worlds begin to collide as she awakens in a mental institution. Though the founder of the asylum knows more about Alice's "dreams" than he lets on...


Visions Through a Bloodstained Looking-Glass

Prologue

"What is it this time...?"

"It's... HER again, sir..."

"Her? You mean Alice?"

"That's right... We've lost her again..."

"Damn it all... ~sigh~ Alright, you know what to do..."

"Right away, sir..."

Alice finishes her second cup of tea and stares at her reflection in the saucer. She'd assumed falling into Wonderland was all some elaborate dream; some sort of counter-creation to all her stress at school and boredom at home. However, she'd woken up once under a tree in the world she'd considered 'normal', and yet, for a long time, seemed to find herself slipping here, even when wide awake. The slipping stopped altogether eventually, as she lost count of her uninterrupted time in Wonderland after a year and a half. Eighteen months. Eighteen months since she'd even seen a glimpse of her "Normal World". Eighteen months since she last sat comfortably in her home, in her favorite chair by the fireplace, with Dinah purring lazily in her lap. She was beginning to forget what it felt like to be normal, and cared less every day.

"Would you like some more tea?", calls a familiar voice, snapping Alice out of her silent reflection. She quickly looks up and shifts her eyes to the far end of the table, where a short man with wild silver hair and an oversized top-hat stared back at her, a ditzy smile shaping his lips. 'The Hatter', as everyone seemed to like calling him. She never inquired for his actual name, and just as well, he didn't seem to have one. "I suppose it couldn't hurt...", she replied distractedly.

"Actually, it could hurt quite a lot.", the Hatter quickly sent back at her. "You could very well make yourself sick off the stuff, if you had the mind to." Alice smiled at his familiar habit of contradicting her vague statements. She had grown to appreciate that about him in her time in this "Other World". "Well then, so could you, Hatter.", she says cheerily, to which the Hatter simply laughs and pours them both another round from a teacup that approaches him by means of little arachnoid legs. "That's where you're mistaken, dear Alice.", he says after taking a long sip. "I haven't the mind for much of anything anymore..." This sends them both into a long fit of laughter. Her pensive moment finally over, Alice takes the time to look about around the long table. They are surrounded on all sides by tall trees, the canopies of which are blocking a great deal of the sun's light. She stares up at the sun, squinting persistently. Much to her amazement, the sun grows brighter by the second, expanding in the sky, swallowing clouds all the while. It expands to the point where she thrusts her arm over her eyes to shield them from the blinding severity of the light.

"The sun is unusually bright today...", Alice understates, returning her attention to the Hatter. However, the more the sun seems to expand toward them, the less opaque the Hatter seems to get, becoming almost completely transparent in a manner of seconds. In a blink of Alice's eyes, the Hatter is gone entirely. She stares up at the light as her head seems to spin out of control.

"Ah, she's back, it seems."

"Christ, how long has she been under this time?"

"I don't know, sir. Her monitor went offline weeks ago. The maintenance crew must not have noticed, and kept reporting her as 'idle'...

"Somebody's getting fired over this... For God's sake, keep her HERE, understood?"

"Yes, sir..."

Alice blinks rapidly as the voices fade into earshot. Two men in extravagant suits are staring at her, their hands folded behind their backs. The man with the more dominant voice storms out of the room, and his companion follows submissively after. She attempts to follow them, but her legs seem to fail her. Looking down, she notices that she is bound to a wooden chair by restraints attached to a straightjacket she currently wears. The Hatter was nowhere in sight. There was no long table; just a floor full of cracked and worn tiles. There were no tall trees; just a tiny square room, half-finished drawings of rabbits in waistcoats drawn crudely all over the walls. There was no Hatter; just a tall man in a suit, closing and locking a metal door in front of her.

Alice had slipped again...

...She was back in the "Normal World"...


End file.
